


Special Delivery

by savvyliterate



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Episode: s07e09 Cold War, F/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-14
Updated: 2013-04-14
Packaged: 2017-12-08 10:20:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/760268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/savvyliterate/pseuds/savvyliterate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So, I might have accidentally reset the HADS and sent the TARDIS to the South Pole. Wouldn’t be a problem except we’re stuck at the North Pole.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Special Delivery

_So, I might have accidentally reset the HADS and sent the TARDIS to the South Pole. Wouldn’t be a problem except we’re stuck at the North Pole. Now, don’t go giving me that look, I know that look. And stop smirking. Could you just pop down there and bring her back to these coordinates? Please. There, I said ‘please,’ you should be happy. You can stop smirking now. Oh, just stop it._

_\- X_

\-----

He’d been without the TARDIS for 7 hours, 14 minutes and 43 seconds, and he was going a bit mad. The Russian rescue ship was on the way, and someone managed to find a dry uniform that Clara could alter to fit her. Because her lips were turning blue from being cold and wet, the Doctor had sent her off to get changed. He turned down the change of clothes himself. He leaned against the railing and pouted.

“Really, sweetie, you look like someone dropped you into the ocean then hung you by the lapels to dry.”

The Doctor spun around, hearts leaping as he drank in the best sight of his life. The TARDIS, the doors open, light and warmth spilling from within. His wife, leaning against the frame, an eyebrow quirked in amusement. And in her arms was a fuzzy blanket. He _loved_ fuzzy blankets. He was so damn happy to see her.

“You took the brakes off!” he protested and immediately wanted to smack himself in the forehead.

River merely arched that eyebrow higher. “Fine, I’m keeping the blanket.”

“No, no, no!” He sprinted to the door before she could do anything and tugged it from her. She tutted a bit and wrapped the blanket around them both before guiding him into the TARDIS.

“You had the setting on the HADS wrong, you over-tightened the brakes, and she really doesn’t like Clara.”

“Yes, yes, I figured out all of that!” The Doctor pulled away from her with the blanket and stomped to the console, muttering under his breath about wives, when he nearly tripped over his own feet. “You know I’m with Clara?”

River rolled her eyes. “Of _course_ I know about Clara, my love. Do you think I’m really so insecure as to be jealous that you have other companions beyond my parents?”

“But, I haven’t seen you since … when was the last time you saw me? Pro …,” he hesitated, trying his very best to ascertain River’s whenabouts based of her clothes, the state of her hair, and that bloody raised eyebrow. Whenabouts. That was a nice new word. “Doctor Song?”

“Giving away spoilers?” River walked to the console herself and gave the time rotor a fond look. “The last time I saw you was when we had Christmas dinner with my parents in 2013 after you let them know you were alive again.”

“But, you know Clara.”

“Yes.”

“You know who she is?”

River smiled. “Yes.”

“You’re not going to tell me, are you?”

“Absolutely not.”

He kicked the console.

“He didn’t mean that,” River told the TARDIS.

“Yes, I did! You know something. _She_ knows something.” He pointed at the time rotor. “I don’t know anything! Do you think it’s amusing that you constantly know all the spoilers, even at this point in time? I’ve kept count!”

The Doctor yanked a compartment on the console open and rummaged through until he found his diary. He shook it at River before opening it up to display two pages filled with hash marks.  “These are all the times you’ve known more than me, and there’s even more than that! You were even mocking me at birth.”

“Frustrated, sweetie?”

“ _Yes!_ ” He tossed the diary back in the compartment, not wanting to shove it into his wet coat. “For once, I’d like to know something you don’t!”

“Poor thing,” she cooed.

“Now, you’re just being patronizing.” He stalked to the hall.

“Well, I can just push you out the door and take the TARDIS back to the South Pole.”

“You wouldn’t.” And there was that eyebrow again. He gave in. “Fine. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I best be off. Clara’s going to notice the TARDIS is back soon, and I can’t be here when she comes in.” River flipped up the vortex manipulator and started coding in coordinates.

The Doctor hesitated. “You said you know her.”

“And she doesn’t know me. She hasn’t met me yet. She will though. And I’ll meet her. Can’t go rewriting time, at least not that part of it.”

“Wait, wait, you can’t just leave.” Letting the blanket drop, he crossed the console room in three giant steps and grabbed her hand before she could finish putting in the coordinates.

“Doctor, I can’t stay.”

“Just for a few minutes!” It suddenly hit him how very long it’d been since he’d seen his wife, how much of their time together was running out. “I … I need help washing my back.”

“Seriously? Sweetie, you can come up with a better excuse than that.”

“Oh, stop it.” He gave her a brief kiss and tugged her impatiently toward their bedroom.

\-----

The Doctor opened the door to a ticked-off Clara.

“And just what have you been doing in there?” she demanded.

He gestured lamely toward the door leading to the inner parts of the ship. “Ah, shower. Dry clothes. That sort of thing.”

“For four hours?”

“Really, four hours?”

Clara squinted, her focus on the Doctor’s neck. “Is that a _hickey_?”

“Oh …” He blushed, adjusted his bowtie, and mentally cursed his wife. “Hush.”


End file.
